by Srila Bhakti Kumuda Santa Gosvami Maharaja Categories of Jivas We observe many types of jivas around us. A jiva is a conscious being: jivati iti jivah that which has life is a jiva. They have been divided into five categories, namely, those whose consciousness is...
By Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja The guru of the universe, Prajāpati Brahmā, once said: “The ātma, or soul, is beyond piety and impiety, old age and death, lamentation, hunger and thirst, and acceptance and rejection. Only he who...
In His instructions to Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī (sanātana-śikṣā), Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, “The Veda discusses sambandha (the relationship between the living entity and the Supreme Entity), abhidheya (the means for attaining the object of pursuit) and prayojana (the very object of pursuit). Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose service is to be attained, is the person with whom we are to have sambandha.
Srila Bhakti Prajnana Keshava Gosvami Maharaja A Festival of Bliss, not Sorrow Separation is a source of great pain for every living entity, so why, yearly, do we make elaborate arrangements in honour of the departure of a great Vaiṣṇava, simply to experience agony?...
Mysticism appears when man approaches the Absolute from his angle; this can still be understood in some way, still be sensed intuitively. Shastram means that which governs us, restrains, corrects, chastises us. It is not the way you think, says the Shastram. – What you yourself like, feel, love and think: the Absolute etc. must be like this or that – let go of it, altogether. Listen to what I, the Shastram, say, and you must accept it – if you have shraddha, at all – and hear it over and over again, however unpleasant, uncomfortable and totally contrary to your expectation it may be.
A person who renders service in a completely independent mood without accepting any guidance does not render true service to the Vaiṣṇavas or Bhagavān; rather, he endeavors only to gratify his own senses. Such a person is known as svecchācāri, or a person who acts only according to his own desires. Before beginning any service, one must understand the moods and desires of the sevya (object of service). It is only after gaining such an understanding that one’s service can truly please the sevya and even be called sevā.
On one Ekadasi most devotees remained at the Matha to observe fasting, but Sripada Asrama Maharaja took anukalpa-prasada and went out to preach. Srila Sarasvati Thakura commented, “He has understood the principle of the Gaudiya Matha.
The questions that are frequently asked are as these:—‘Why should it be at all necessary to submit to any particular person or to subscribe to any particular ceremony for the purpose of realising the Absolute Who by His Nature is unconditioned? Why should Krishna require our formal declaration of submission to Himself? Would it not be more generous and logical to permit us to live a life of freedom in accordance with the principles of our perverted nature which is also His creation? Admitting that it is our duty to serve Krishna, why should we have to be introduced to Him by a third party? Why is it impossible for one to serve Sri Krishna directly?
The good preceptor although he appears to belong to this world is not really of this world. No one who belongs to this world can deliver us from worldliness. The good preceptor is a denizen of the spiritual world who has been enabled by the will of God to appear in this world in order to enable us to realise the spiritual existence.
In Bengal, everyone from the Gaudiya sampradaya who is serving Sriman Mahaprabhu is a follower of that senior Vaisnavacarya. His other name is Sri Madhvamuni. This matha has been named after him. Sri Krishna Caitanyadeva is the eighteenth descendant from Sripada Ananda Tirtha, or Purna Prajna. The seventeenth descendants are Sri Advaita Prabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu. These three prabhus accepted Sri Madhvamuni into their disciplic succession.
“Why should that Supreme Soul, the principal Transcendental Object, not imbibe the all-encompassing conception? That is to say, why should He not include both non-matter and matter, both the part and the whole, and why should He not incorporate both ends of the continuum of variegated realities?”
Sri Guru, the Vaisnavas and Sri Bhagavan – these three are antaryami. In other words, they are the internal witnesses and know our heart. They see the Truth and speak the Truth. They extend their causeless compassion to the conditioned souls of this world in ways that are unnoticed by mortal intelligence and inconceivable to it. Truly nothing in this world can compare to their compassion. Only a soul who possesses sufficient spiritual merit can fathom something of their unsurpassed compassion.
Bhakti Siddhanta Vani –short texts
The disciple who follows his guru’s orders and teachings, rather than imitating his actions and practices, will never be deprived of his guru’s mercy. Rather than taking the Āṣvinī Kumāra’s advice to imitate the actions of his guru, Upamanyu followed his guru’s order. He refused to eat the healing cake without his guru’spermission.